Article

Angela Garner

Pet loss can bring a roller coaster of overwhelming emotions and turmoil. To help with this, here are five tips or core issues to remember. Recognise that you are going through a significant grieving process, so you need to give yourself the necessary time and space to take on board what has happened. Rather than try to cope on your own, talk things through with someone who understands, and look at any issues that are worrying you to see if you can find a way of settling them. Allow yourself to feel what you feel – to truly express your [...]

Nomination: Angie Garner for Compassion The end of an animal’s life is a very difficult subject to talk about but it forms a very important part of donkey welfare for animals and owners both in the UK and overseas. While many of our staff around the world carry out the unimaginable task of assessing quality of life and giving donkeys the kindest end possible, Angie has worked in the background with exceptional compassion to support them and others with dealing with the loss of a donkey and the impact that has on owners and the vets themselves. Angie gave a [...]

I wanted to share this excellent blog by Dr Faith Burden from The Donkey Sanctuary's Research Veterinary Dept. as she talks about the distress of animal death with sensitivity and realism. https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/blog/distress-of-death

In October I presented at XL Equine's Autumn veterinary meeting. I was pleased to be invited to talk about "Coping with the Grieving Owner" because dealing with highly distressed people in the normal busy day to day schedule of a practice can be stressful for all the staff involved. The methods I teach are to understand the destabilising effects of grief and how to be aware of these and be led by the need and respond in a calm and compassionate manner. During my presentation I spoke about the importance of taking care of oneself because dealing with those in grief can be [...]

I presented at BEVA (British Equine Veterinary Association) Congress on 12 September 2015 in Liverpool. My talk was entitled, "Euthanasia - supporting the bereaved equine owner", which was within the context of The Hospitalised Horse. In this I covered: The effects of grief, using an analogy to explain why owners can be so overwhelmed by the process. Supporting owners before, during and after euthanasia, and how to communicate about end-of-life issues with compassion and understanding. Where owners can access further support (the websites of these organisations were included in my Abstract in the 2015 BEVA Congress handbook which each delegate received). [...]

Over time I’ve found that being a Pet Bereavement Counsellor doesn’t make losing one of my own little charges any easier – the grief still needs to be worked through, although understanding the process, and knowing that the overwhelming emotions are finite, does help. Two years ago I experienced a loss I was not expecting – after all, parrots can live for years and I was convinced that Poppy and I would grow old together. So this blog is in tribute to Poppy, the parrot, but to begin I need to go right back to when we first met in [...]